


Members Only

by DarkWiccan, Laragh



Series: Be Here With Me [4]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Conversations, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Interlude, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 17:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13392933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWiccan/pseuds/DarkWiccan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laragh/pseuds/Laragh
Summary: After an eventful dinner with 'friends', Waverly has a bone to pick with Nicole.





	Members Only

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Scattered references to seasons one and two.
> 
> This is our fourth collaboration for this series. Please read the notes at the end for nifty info on how we wrote this scene :)

 

 

 

Waverly sat in the passenger seat of Nicole's car, staring at the world passing her by. She was silent, loudly so, and her tightly crossed arms over the seatbelt sitting across her chest made it clear she wasn't in a happy frame of mind. Every so often her eyes would flash with anger and her jaw would clench before she huffed out a breath and went back to watching the roadside trees blend into a haze of color.

 

Nicole could feel the anger and agitation spilling off of her girlfriend like a riptide. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, the surface creaking under the pressure, and darted her gaze to Waverly every few seconds even as she tried to focus on the road. The air was charged with unease, she could feel it humming through her teeth like electricity. Tentatively, she reached across the center console and placed a hand on Waverly’s knee.

 

Waverly's reverie was broken by the action and her eyes glanced away furtively from the road, down to her knee and then up to Nicole. She stared for all of two seconds before blurting, "How can you just sit there?"

 

Nicole jolted slightly, startled by the outburst. “I...”

 

Waverly just looked at her expectantly, impatient wide eyes demanding an answer.

 

“I...I’m not sure what it is you want me to do, Waves.”

 

A breath exhaled in a short huff through Waverly's nose. "You should have said something."

 

Nicole sighed. “They’re friends, Wave. Not great friends. But good friends. Being at the Academy together, going through the intensity of boot camp, it forms a bond. What happened... it wasn’t a battle I wanted to fight.” She looked at Waverly again. “And I did try to redirect the conversation as best as I could to avoid getting into an awkward discussion or debate.”

 

"We shouldn't be a 'debate'. Our lives are not up for 'debate'!"

 

Nicole felt her jaw tighten and her nostrils flair as a rush of frustration swooped through her. Pursing her lips together, she took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out slowly. “You’re right. What they said was stupid and ignorant and rude. But they didn’t know that.”

 

Waverly smarted. "How could they not know that?"

 

Nicole shrugged one shoulder. “Because they’re straight.” And basic, she thought to herself, but left those words unsaid.

 

Waverly's brow furrowed. "What, so...all straight people are ignorant?"

 

“No, not all,” admitted Nicole, “but a lot them are.” She paused, trying to find the right way to explain things. “We exist in two worlds. They only exist in one. Some will genuinely try to understand our world. Most just peer in and make assumptions based on stereotypes. They’re the ones most likely to say something like, ‘I’m not homophobic, I have gay friends!’”

 

Waverly slumped back in the seat, slightly stunned. "I never thought about it like that," she said quietly.

 

Nicole reached up and ran her fingers across Waverly’s arms, still folded across her chest, teasing Waverly’s left hand free and taking it into her own. “I know that you’ve already had the experience of being ‘othered’,” she said gently. “Growing up with your last name wasn’t easy for you.” She took a breath and then continued, “being gay is a whole other level of ‘otherness’. Weird as it is being that it’s a ‘small town’, we’ve been lucky in Purgatory. Folks there have treated us like any other couple. But, sadly, that’s not the norm. And...” she hesitated. “And... What Logan and Zoe said wasn’t that bad... believe me. I’ve experienced ‘bad’. It was just... thoughtless and dumb.”

 

"So being gay is an open invitation for people to ask invasive questions and make stupid comments?"

 

“To some people, yes, it is.”

 

Waverly blinked. "...why?"

 

Nicole shrugged again. “We’re a curiosity, I guess.” She shook her head quickly. “Or... it’s like... they’re trying to understand us from their frame of reference.”

 

Waverly's arms went over her chest again, lightly this time as her face furrowed pensively. "You mean from a reference of someone who's never faced discrimination because of their sexuality."

 

“Exactly,” Nicole nodded. “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but among straight women who are friends there’s this culture of discussing sex kind of openly, right?”

 

"Well, yeah," Waverly nodded.

 

“Right,” affirmed Nicole. “So a straight woman talking to a gay woman whom she considers to be a friend would assume that the same rules of discourse apply. But before they can get to the ‘relationship gossip’ they have to understand who holds what ‘role’ because they assume that gay relationships are the same as straight ones.”

 

Waverly considered her relationship with Nicole verses her relationship with Champ but it was impossible to compare what 'roles' they fell into since the only role Champ knew was straight up douche. "Nicole," she said, turning with worry, "Am I...was I ever like that with you? I...it was eye opening getting into a relationship with you. I still don't understand a lot of the culture and I guess I've never thought that it **is** different to be with you."

 

Nicole squeezed Waverly’s knee. “No, no, baby, you never said or asked anything inappropriate,” she assured her, opting not to mention the whole ‘lesbian unicorn’ thing, which truthfully had been borderline – but because Nicole understood the larger picture that had been going on at the time, it was a billion percent forgivable. “But, I do think that you do recognize that being with me is different. First of all, we’re basically equals with each other, right? That has to feel different.”

 

"I don't mean in those ways, the ways between us...I mean in the way the world sees us."

 

“And that’s the second thing,” said Nicole, “you knew that being with me was different because... you were afraid to tell Wynonna. And that’s totally ok, babe. Everyone comes out at their own pace, and I was never going to pressure you. But then...Willa... sort of forced the issue.”

 

"There was so much else going on...and I did try to tell her once. But I thought...I thought about being stared at or being called names. I never thought about how I was shifting from one world to another. How just falling in love with you reaches so deeply into my life, down to interactions with strangers."

 

“I don’t know what to say, Waves,” Nicole replied, “there are always going to be Logans and Zoes... and worse. But, hopefully, not often. And... I would also hope that the good of being with me outweighs the bad of stupid people.”

 

Waverly looked over slowly. "Nicole, I made a deal with the devil for you. You outweigh everything."

 

“I love you, Waverly,” said Nicole as she caressed her thigh. “And... I’m really sorry for what my... ignorant... friends said at dinner. And I’m sorry I cut you off before you had a chance to put them in their place.” She looked at her girlfriend knowingly.

 

Waverly dropped her hands into her lap. "I guess I have to learn to pick my battles. And that really sucks." She paused and looked at Nicole again. "But I wouldn't change our world for anything. Even if **the** world takes a bit longer to catch up."

 

Grateful to be able to, Nicole grasped Waverly’s hand again. The warm feeling of their palms connecting and Waverly’s fingers curling around the back of her hand sent a sensation of relief and comfort down Nicole’s spine. She hoped that Waverly felt the same.

 

For the first time in the whole journey home, Waverly smiled. Soft, loving and ready to take on the world with Nicole's hand in hers.

 

Hoping that it’s safe enough to tease, Nicole asked in a joking tone, “You wanna know the best way to deal with ignorant straight people?”

 

"None I can admit to an officer of the law."

 

Nicole snickered and shook her head.

 

"Well, you better tell me so you only have to use your handcuffs on me in private."

 

Flushing, Nicole swallowed, trying to subdue the rush of arousal that suddenly pulsed through her belly. “Well, that’s just it you see,” she said, her voice low and playful. “We just have to be extra gay with each other.” She waggled her eyebrows.

 

Waverly reached across and curled the ends of Nicole's hair around her fingers, simultaneously tickling the back of her neck. "So you're saying we need to be 12/10 gay to balance the scales?"

 

Nicole felt her eyelids flutter at the contact and struggled to keep her attention on the road. “Mm-hm,” she agreed, “at least.”

 

Waverly very lightly use one finger to tickle a sensitive spot under Nicole's ear. "I'm always up for a challenge."

 

“Me too, baby,” Nicole sighed, “just... maybe... we should wait until we get home?”

 

"I'm not doing anything," Waverly replied not-so-innocently.

 

“Waverly,” Nicole whined, “I don’t want a repeat of last time. We were so lucky I paid extra for the insurance on that rental car.” And that we didn’t die, she thought to herself.

 

Waverly snatched her hand back and pretended to be annoyed. "You're just as guilty, wearing one of those sexy button-ups."

 

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “But, almost all of my shirts are button ups.”

 

"So you know how difficult you make my life!" Waverly's smile started to break.

 

Catching the crack in her girlfriend’s facade, Nicole decided that a little turnabout was fair. “Well, I don’t want to give you a hard time, baby. I’ll order some turtlenecks from Target when we get home.”

 

"Oh goodie," Waverly grinned, "Now you won't be able to complain if I leave a mark."

 

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Ok, ok, well-played.”

 

"It doesn't really matter what you wear, you know, it always looks better on the floor."

 

Sparing a quick glance in the rear view mirror, Nicole slammed on the brakes and then steered the Jeep off to the side of the highway. She twisted in her seat to look directly at her startled girlfriend. “Backseat.”

 

Waverly's eyebrows rose only momentarily, before she was snapping her seatbelt out of place and crawling into the backseat.

 

“Ok,” muttered Nicole, “we’re really doing this.” She started to awkwardly crawl over the center console, got caught in her seatbelt, sat back down, unbuckled and finally - albeit gracelessly - made it into the back seat. “Hi.”

 

"Hi," Waverly returned, too feeling the awkward lull, "...come here often?"

 

“Maybe you should make me,” Nicole replied, smiling cheekily.

 

Waverly reached out and took a fistful of that sexy button-up, pulling Nicole forwards until there was nothing but air passing between their lips.

 

Giggling against Waverly’s mouth, Nicole grasped her hips and tugged them towards her, causing her to slide down the seat and on to her back. Unfortunately, Nicole didn’t factor the short width of the Jeep’s backseat and, as she rushed to lean forward to lower her body on Waverly’s beneath her, she banged her forehead forcefully on the roll-bar running across the back passenger window. “Shit!” she yelped, sitting up suddenly and hitting her head on the roof of the car. “Damn!” She wrapped her head in her hands.

 

"Baby!" Waverly said in alarm, reaching out to gently touch Nicole's head, "Are you bleeding?"

 

She swiped her hand across her forehead and looked at her fingertips. “No, no... I don’t think so.” She panted slightly, the jolt of adrenaline from the double-impact coursing through her. “Definitely going to have a headache though.” She winced as she already felt one starting.

 

Waverly tenderly cupped both of Nicole's cheeks and smiled affectionately. "I think I need to get you home with some painkillers and soft cushions you can't injure yourself on."

 

“Sorry,” said Nicole, “I guess our little Level 12/10 Gay Backseat Adventure is over before it started.”

 

"That level of gay can't be contained. It will...come...eventually." Waverly's lips quirked up in a one-sided grin that she expertly morphed into a seductive look and then seamlessly into loving, "You lie down back here, I'll drive the rest of the way."

 

“Ok, baby,” Nicole submitted, feeling supremely stupid. “I’ll make this up to you. I promise.”

 

Waverly kissed Nicole's forehead, avoiding the area of impact, then each of her eyelids and finally her lips. "You make it up with that gorgeous smile."

 

Nicole’s heart fluttered happily at the light kisses. For a moment, her headache waned thanks to the balm of Waverly’s love. She grinned happily. “You put it there, you know.”

 

Waverly smiled softly. "If I achieve nothing else in life, that will be the one thing I'm most proud of."

 

Nicole reached up and cupped Waverly’s face, stroking her thumb along her cheekbone tenderly. “Love you, Waves.”

 

Waverly made sure Nicole was buckled up and kissed her cheek. "I love you too, Nicole." She gently patted Nicole's head to make sure there was no bump before getting back into the front, by way of the door this time. She got in the driver's side, adjusted the seat forward so that her feet could reach the pedals, buckled up and pulled back onto the road to Purgatory.

 

Nicole relaxed back into the seat, trying to rest her head comfortably against the headrest (with minimal success). She gazed at Waverly’s face in the rear view mirror - focused but relaxed. She smiled again. Couldn’t help it. And felt a rush of love run through her chest, as though Cupid had pierced her heart all over again.

 

After several minutes staring at the blurring lines on the road, Waverly glanced in the rearview mirror and spoke softly so as not to wake her girlfriend should she be sleeping. "Nicole?"

 

“Hm?” she replied, not sleepily, but as though coming out of a reverie.

 

Waverly paused for a moment, considering it before asking. "Has that happened to you a lot?"

 

“Hitting my head in the backseat of a car while trying to make out with my girlfriend?” asked Nicole, sitting up a little. “I have to say this is a first.”

 

"No, the...the comments. The assumptions. The...stupidity."

 

“Oh.” Nicole shifted uncomfortably. Her impulse was to protect Waverly, but she knew she had to push that aside in favor of the truth. “Yeah,” she said after a moment, “a fair amount.”

 

Waverly was silent, processing that information. Finally, she spoke again. "A lot of people said a lot of things to me about dating Champ...but none of them were so presumptuous. None of them made me feel like a spectacle just for existing."

 

Nicole stayed silent, watching Waverly’s face closely in the mirror.

 

"It's like they felt entitled to know about the intricacies of our relationship...no, it was more, like they wanted us to fit into their little boxes."

 

“Because... they did,” Nicole shrugged. “Like I said, they don’t understand so they try to put things in terms that they do.”

 

"But what makes them so comfortable asking things like that? Do you think they would have been laughing so much if I asked what was the last position they had sex in?"

 

Nicole winced. “That’s not—” She stopped herself. She was not going to start defending her ‘friends’ again. Even if what they had said wasn’t in the same league as inquiring about sex positions, they had still technically been in the wrong. “No, they wouldn’t have been laughing. They would have been shocked, and probably pissed. And you have every right to feel the same way.”

 

"You're saying the right words yet I still feel like you think I'm overreacting."

 

Pursing her lips together, Nicole took a deep breath in and blew it out. “You’re not overreacting for someone who’s experiencing this type of thing for the first time.”

 

"Rude people?"

 

“Casual discrimination,” Nicole clarified.

 

"I'm an Earp. It's practically a birthright."

 

“Yeah, but... I know this was different.”

 

Waverly exhaled slowly. "I could fight to have people like me despite my name...but quite frankly I don't want to fight anyone because of who I am. Who I love."

 

“And you shouldn’t have to,” agreed Nicole. “And you **don’t** have to. Like you said earlier, it’s about picking your battles.” She thought for a moment, trying to decide if she wanted to share what was on the tip of her tongue. “You make a choice everyday as to what you’re going to let slide. What you’re going to let hurt you and what you’re going to defend yourself against. As a cop I’m trained to have a heightened awareness of my surroundings at all times. Passenger-window roll bars excluded, apparently,” she muttered the last sentence. “But, I didn’t have to be trained to do that. Because just being gay and out in a straight world, requires it. Remember when I put my arm around you after we’d been seated? Before Logan and Zoe got there?”

 

"I remember you smelled nice and I wanted to get closer."

 

Nicole smiled at that, but then her expression turned serious again. “Well, there was a guy two tables down to the right who gave us the dirtiest look. A look that said, ‘how dare you flaunt your sexuality in public, in my face.’ And I had to decide was I going to take my arm back to appease this man, just in case he was the type to storm over and cause a problem? Or was I going to leave my arm where it was, where it rightfully deserved to be, around the woman I love?” She looked up into the rear view mirror and caught Waverly’s eye. “Obviously, I decided on the latter. But those are the kind of things that happen, every day, all the time.”

 

Waverly kept her gaze for a moment. "I didn't even notice. Do people do that? Cause a scene for having you arm around your girlfriend? I've only ever seen it when Champ freaked out that time...but I thought that was just because he was bitter over me."

 

“He was bitter over you... and kind of emasculated,” Nicole replied. “But, yeah, people do cause a scene for something as innocuous as holding hands or having an arm around each other. Sometimes they do more.”

 

Waverly's face slowly fell. "So I have to be scared to be affectionate every time we're out of our little bubble?"

 

“No, baby, not at all,” Nicole reassured her, “just aware. I only used that example so you could maybe see why I wasn’t so upset by the stupid things Zoe and Logan said.”

 

"For the first time in my life I don't think researching this will make me feel better."

 

“Sometimes knowing things isn’t fun.”

 

Waverly sighed as the passed the Welcome to Purgatory sign. "I always thought the world beyond that sign would be more...just **more**. But I guess that means more of the bad stuff too."

 

“Yeah,” Nicole nodded, “but like anything that happens, you may not be able to control the event, but you can control how you react to it and how you let it affect you. And as long as we’re together, I can take the occasional dirty look and ignorant, invasive, question.”

 

"Can I ask you one more thing?"

 

“Anything.”

 

"Do you have an 'in' with the stations in the city if I accidentally step on some bigot's foot? Hard?"

 

Laughing, Nicole replied, “I’m sure I could make a phone call or two.” She sat forward in her seat and rested her hand in Waverly’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

 

Waverly briefly crossed her left arm over her body to place her hand on Nicole's and give it a quick squeeze back. "My sexy, connected baby."

 

Taking in the passing street signs, Nicole asked, “How close are we to home,” knowing full well.

 

"If we get a green at the traffic lights, I can get to the homestead in 10 or your place in 5."

 

“Is it ok if we go to mine? I just have this great headache cure...”

 

Waverly's lips curve upwards on one side, her facial features relaxing. "Is it the same one you offered to me when that revenant hit my head with a plank of wood?"

 

Nicole smirked. “It worked, didn’t it?”

 

"It did work. Twice, if I recall."

 

“I’m just a very thorough nurse-maid. And my head and I would certainly appreciate your healing hands, as well.”

 

Waverly pushed on the accelerator a little harder, sitting up straight with anticipation. It had been a frustrating day with heavy conversations, but that wasn't unusual in this town, with her family. Be it demons or monsters of the human variety, there was always someone ready to pounce on and attack them. But just like every other tough day, it was made that little bit better knowing she was going home with Nicole.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! As noted at the top this vignette is the fourth of a series of collaborations Laragh and I have worked on together.
> 
> We used a theatrical improvisation technique to write these pieces and I think that it helped to create something really special. We'd log into a chatting application and literally write back and forth just like a real conversation, only we were "in character" the entire time, and also included descriptive elements just as you would when writing a standard fic.
> 
> The pieces we came up with started from mere suggestions such as "I wonder if Waverly worries about Nicole's past romantic experience" and went from there. Because we aren't planning beyond the initial idea and figuring on a location or activity, the result is a truly spontaneous conversation. Neither of us had any idea what the other was going to say/write and so the reactions and responses are genuine. We caught each other out and surprised each other constantly.
> 
> What you're reading is literally our chat logs copied and pasted into a word document, and then edited for grammar, punctuation, spelling and usage.
> 
> I (DW) always write for Nicole and Laragh always writes for Waverly. (We might change this up at some point, but these assignments have been working well for us so far).
> 
> We hope that you enjoy these little vignettes. We've purposefully created a backlog so that we will always have something ready to post weekly for quite some time.
> 
> Cheers!  
> DW & Laragh
> 
> Disclaimer: Waverly and Nicole and other characters borrowed from the television show Wynonna Earp are the property of their creators, and their affiliates, NBCUniversal, Syfy, Space and IDW Publishing. The characters may not belong to us, but this series does. Please don’t plagiarize.


End file.
